Percabeth Ch I: Peace is an Illusion
by ArinEren
Summary: Hi this is my first fan fiction. I hope you enjoy it! This is about what happens after Annabeth and Percy have completed their quests
1. Chapter 1

Peace is an Illusion

_Hi this is my first fan fiction so please bear with me. This is about Percy and Annabeth once all the fights are over._

Chapter 1

_The clouds drifted above me, a light pink, and the sun was just rising up from what seemed to be the ground. A nice early morning air drifted into my lungs, sharp and clean. Autumn leaves painted the sky in an everlasting hue of peace and rebirth. Peace…it has been a long time since I have ever been able to think about peace. It's almost like a dream, and once I wake up, I will be imprisoned or badly wounded from fighting monsters, Titans, etcetera. But no, it has been two months without a quest. I liked it, but I was always on edge, and I fear that, with the things I've seen and done, I may never be able to truly forget and let my guard down. With every monster I've killed, every near-death experience I've survived, every loved one I've lost or put in harm's way, every sorrow I've endured, and every betrayal I've lived with, a wall has been made protecting myself from the outside world. In the end, the only person I have truly let in right now is Percy, the love of my life. My biggest fear is that someday, just like with everyone else I love, I won't be able to fix a problem, and he will disappoint me and be killed._

"Hey-"

_I fling my head around, immediately unsheathing my dagger, knocking my attacker down with a quick kick to the legs and hold the dagger down to Percy's throat…PERCY?_

"Jeez Wise girl, you looked like you were about to gut me like a fish," he says trying to stifle a laugh. I still have the dagger to his throat and quickly put it back in its hilt, then help Percy up.

"Well you are a son of Poseidon Seaweed Brain. I thought you were a fish. And besides, you know better than to not sneak up on me, especially when I'm practicing my sword fighting."

Percy laughs, his eyes sparkling, but then becomes serious. When I look into his eyes, I can almost see the ocean battering its waves against the sandy shore. He looks exactly like the ancient Greek heroes from the stories, strong, lithe, curly auburn black hair, olive complexion, a slight smile. But his eyes hold sadness and sorrows that no regular human can even imagine, a sadness and simple knowing of the horrible fate placed upon him before birth that all the great heroes have. Unfortunately, all the great heroes end up dying early and suffering a horrible fate.

"Do you think we will ever be able to forget what we've been through and live in peace?" The sea in his eyes is turning into a storm.

I swear sometimes it is like he is reading my mind, "I don't know…there have been so many deaths so much blood, so much evil. I feel like there is always something watching me, waiting for me to let my guard down so that it can kill me and torture me and hurt the ones I love."

"I know…" he says quietly, and wraps me into his arms.

This is what I love about Percy; he doesn't say it's going to be okay, because he knows better than anyone else, even me, that if you're a demigod, things are never truly "okay". False sympathy and security just makes it hurt more. Percy's real, and he has been through more than any teenager should ever have to go through. I hold him tighter, and breathe in the familiar scent of seawater and pine. After a couple of minutes, we let go reluctantly.

"So, why were you over here at the crack of dawn?" Percy inquires. Although he knows the general reason why I workout, he wants to know what is bothering me this time.

I always find that practicing with my dagger, sweating and working, not only helps me focus on intellectual matters, but also gets my mind off things, so I practice early in the morning when something is bothering me.

"It's just…I feel like something's breathing down my neck. I'm suffocating Percy, there are no monsters to fight and yet their destroying me. I keep having dreams. I keep seeing my friends die and get hurt because of me. I see myself killing and killing and killing…I can't turn it off Percy." I shudder at the thought of my recurring nightmares. Usually, half-blood's dreams aren't happy and nice and such, but instead of dreaming about the future battles and enemies to come, I keep dreaming of the horrors of my past quests. I wonder if I'm going crazy.

"I know what you mean, the same thing has been happening to me…" the storm has turned into a hurricane.

I look into Percy's eyes and realize that he may be having more trouble than he's been letting on. Silence envelopes us as we stare into one another's eyes. Silence, silence, silence. I start to tremble, and I feel a tear slide down my cheek. I break the gaze and hastily wipe the tear away. _Stop crying! Why am I crying? No one's going to play a small violin for you Annabeth! _ I think to myself, trying to stop the rush of tears. Percy puts his hand on my shoulder and gently turns me around. Another tear glides down my cheek, but I cannot brush it away.

"Annabeth…" My heart races as he says my name. We stare into each other's eyes, mine a storm of sky and his is a storm of the sea. He smiles and lifts my face to his, and kisses me gently on the cheek.

"I love you"

_Thanks and let me know what you think. There will be another chapter coming out soon. _


	2. Percabeth Chapter II: When in Rome

Percabeth Chapter II: When in Rome

I woke up groggily, rubbing the morning sand out of my eyes. I reached for my phone to check the time...6:15 a.m. I groan. I woke up last night at 2:00 a.m. because I had another nightmare and wasn't able to go back to bed till 4:00. So, why did I wake up this early? I heard the shuffle of feet and immediately tensed up. I slowly reached for my dagger and took it out of the sheath on my thigh (I know it's weird but I don't want to sleep without a weapon and I don't just want to hold it because I may accidentally cut myself). I quickly threw the sheets off my head, jumped out of bed, knocked my opponent against the wall, and placed the dagger under his throat...Percy's throat. Ugh. This was turning into a habit.

"Cute pajamas. So how are you going to kill me this time, Spartan?" he chuckled. I let Percy go and looked down at what I was wearing, and I blushed bright red. I was wearing the old water park T-shirt from our first quest, boxers, and my thigh sheath…a thigh sheath.

"Percy, what are you doing here at 6:00 in the morning?"

"6:15 to be precise and we are going on a date!" he pronounced with an overly sufficient amount of enthusiasm.

"Why now?" Percy suddenly became very serious.

"I realized that all we've been doing is training and studying and focusing on our nightmares, even though we have the most free time of all the half-bloods at camp. So, I thought, now is as good a time as any to take our mind off things," He smiled kindly.

"But Percy, you know we can't go outside of camp. Where would we go?"

He was grinning stupidly "You'll see. It's a surprise. Oh, and don't worry about dressing up. We're just going to have some good old fashioned fun." He just stood there, with that silly grin on his face.

"Percy. I need to change". He was still standing there with that stupid grin on his face. Sometimes I honestly think he has a Seaweed Brain.

"Earth to Percy! Get out! I need to change!" I yelled into his ear. He jumped up then relaxed.

"Okay, okay Wise Girl. Meet you here at 7:30?" he inquired, slightly laughing.

"Sure..." he started to leave. "Percy...thanks."

"For what?"

"For being a total idiot." I stood on my toes and kissed him on the cheek. He looked dumbfounded, but then smiled mischievously.

"You, know, I got all Fs in my junior year" then puckered his lips and leaned in for a kiss. I laughed and pushed him gently outside.

"See you in an hour," he chuckled.

"An hour and 15 minutes, to be precise," I smiled mischievously and shut the door gently. He smiled then jogged of towards the mess hall.

Cold water beat down on my skin. I like cold showers; they wake me up and make me feel refreshed. I ate a light breakfast, brushed my teeth, and then ran around Camp a couple times lightly. After that, I pulled on my orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, some jean shorts, my gray converse, then bunched my hair into a high ponytail, and placed my Yankee baseball cap on my head. I started to read the Iliad. I liked this Greek tragedy the most out of all the stories because it shows how ridiculous and petty the gods really are. They insist that they cannot interfere with their half-mortal children's lives, and yet they meddle all the time if it's in their best interest. Otherwise, they just leave us to die horrible, gruesome deaths. And when they do interfere, they usually end up making it worse because of all their bickering with the other gods. You'd think that after living millions of years they would realize that fighting and bickering with one another rarely solves anything, but I guess you can't teach an old god new tricks. I had finished the 6th chapter when I heard a knock at my door. I smiled and opened it to Percy, then started to laugh hysterically, and so did he. He was wearing his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, jeans, and blue gym shoes.

"We're _that couple_," Percy said jokingly, but it made me feel really happy. It was almost like we were a normal teenage couple...almost.

_That couple_ was basically the couple that wore the same sort of clothing without even planning it. And we were definitely _that couple_. I laughed and nodded my head. Suddenly, Percy bowed and outstretched his hand.

"Do I have permission to look at you, Princess," he smiled mischievously. I lifted my chin and put on an air of regality. I took his outstretched hand lightly.

"You may. But only for 30 seconds."

"I'll make it count," and my feet suddenly lifted off the ground and I laughed. Percy had picked me up wedding style. He kissed me gently, then his lips curled into a smile, and he set me down gently.

"Told you I'd make it count." We both laughed and I curled my fingers into his. Percy started to walk and I followed. We walked for 10 minutes, laughing and talking and kissing and hugging, until Percy stopped abruptly.

"Close your eyes-"

"Percy-"

"C'mon Wise Girl. Don't you trust me?" he smiled, and I smiled, and then reluctantly closed my eyes.

"I can't even take a quick peek?"

"No! I want it to be a surprise." He led me for five minutes, then went behind me and placed his hands over my eyes, just to be safe.

"Can I look yet?"

"One minute. And…" he removed his hands. "Now!" I opened my eyes and my jaw dropped.

"Percy...it's"

We were at the Roman Forum. In the Battle between Gaea and the "gods" a.k.a the demigods doing the work for the gods, both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter were destroyed beyond repair. So both camps decided to combine together, and I was assigned as the architect. Even though a lot of the Camp was a mixture of the Greek and Roman styles, the center of the Camp, the Forum, was all Roman, and was replicated to look like the one from Camp Jupiter, with a few minor improvements I made. But after I finished designing and supervising it, I never went to actually look and enjoy the work that I had done. And man was it "beautiful". The streets were lined with pine, cypress, and olive trees. The roads and sidewalks were made of marble and gems, and the shops columns were covered in silver and gold. The air smelled of ambrosia, nectar, and fresh summer breeze, like Camp Half-Blood's offering fire, and all around us were demigods entering shops of all kinds.

"I just thought it was ridiculous that you hadn't seen how your work turned out, especially since it was so beautiful" he said, grinning ear to ear.

"Percy, you're amazing."

"You know what's even more amazing? The food here. It's _god_ly." He laughed at his own cheesy joke and I smiled. Percy always knows how to make me smile, even in spite of himself.

"C'mon, let's go to this awesome cafe I heard about."

My heart sunk.

"Percy, I didn't bring any money." He smiled so slyly, that I almost thought he was a son of Hermes.

"I got it covered." He pulled out a huge bag of golden and silver drachmas and a giant wad of cash, probably about 2,000 dollars' worth. My jaw dropped for the second time that day.

"Percy...How did you get all that money?"

"I did some small chores for some of the gods and I started a water show and sword fighting attraction for the younger campers and some minor gods. I saved up. This is about 2 years' worth."

Of course, I knew about the show, I just thought that he spent it all on cheeseburgers and new weapons.

"Percy, I know for certain that we aren't going to spend all that on one date. You really didn't have to."

He smiled again and said "You'll see."

We walked to the Cafe and got a table outside, because it was so beautiful. Then we had everything from stuffed olives to baklava. We even had waffles and pancakes. Then, Percy asked if he could see the chef, which startled me. Percy isn't one of those snobby rich guys that talks to the chef, he just eats his food and leaves. I wondered why he asked for the chef.

"Oh, hello...Demeter, is it?" Percy chuckled.

I started stuffing food in my face to keep from laughing uncontrollably. A familiar cherub-like face and leopard print shirt came into view. Dionysus was wearing a hair net.

"What are you doing here Johnson? And I would watch your tongue, or else I'll turn you into a dolphin and grill you for tomorrow's special."

"So, Mr. D, why are you working here?" I said as politely as possible, because I know Dionysus wasn't joking about turning Percy into Atlantic Bottlenose stew.

"Well, if you _must _know, _Annabelle_, Dad caught me with that sea nymph again, and said I wasn't even worthy of teaching you spoiled brats, so he sent me here to cook for you." he said contemptuously, practically spitting venom and hissing.

"Well, I'm sorry about that, uh, Daedalus, was it? Oh and here's a little extra for your troubles. It must be so hard being a minor god," Percy said with mock sympathy, and put a gold drachma in his shirt pocket. Before Dionysus could incinerate us both, Percy stood up, took my hand, and walked out of the cafe.

I almost choked on my food with laughter and fear as I heard Dionysus screech,

"MINOR...GOD! I'll get you for this Peter Johnson. A god never forgets!"

"Percy, that wasn't a good idea. It was a funny one, but still a really bad idea. Dionysus is a god. He could torture you or kill you just by snapping his fingers!"

"Don't worry Wise Girl. Zeus suspended his powers for a century, and he's not allowed to leave the restaurant for 500 years. I don't think I'll turn into a dolphin for quite some time."

His eyes sparkled like the sea, blue-green and bright. I smiled at him, and then we both started to laugh.

"That was pretty hilarious. Did you see the hair net" I said, my lungs hurting from so much laughter.

"Ya, and did you see Dionysus's face! It was practically purple with anger!"

After that, we walked around the forum, tasting different foods, reading books, and laughing, always laughing. We even tried out the Roman bathhouses. The Californian sun shined brightly, and thanks to our perfect weather enchantment, everything was perfect. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I had Percy, which was all that really mattered. At about 1:30 we sat at the fountain, licking our gelato and talking.

"So...Why did you bring all that money?" My curiosity got the best of me. We were halfway through the day and we had only used 20 drachmas and $30.

"You'll see." He smiled cunningly, and I knew that in about an hour or two, if I didn't know the answer, I would explode from not knowing.

I sighed, "All right, all right, but I still really want to know. Will I know by the end of the day?"

He grinned mischievously and said, "Oh yes. You'll know by the end of the day."

The day just flew by. We had scoured every part of the Forum, and shared multiple kisses and long laughs. It was one of the best days of my life, next to the day Percy and I kissed underwater, and the day I found Percy again. Then we sat in the grass and watched the sunset. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. The sky was painted multiple hues of green, pink, purple, yellow, red, orange, and blue. The clouds were fluffy and scarce, and the sun looked like a doorway, a doorway into a better, happier future. We sat on a picnic blanket and shared sandwiches specially made by Juniper, Grover's girlfriend, who was the chef at the restaurant Green Meadows. Percy held me in his arms, and once the sunset was over, we sat up, tangled our hands in one another's, and then walked back to camp to enjoy the campfire sing along. Percy said he would meet me at the campfire and that he had to get something, so I walked to my cabin and took another shower. I put back on my Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, put on a pair of long jeans, Uggs, a warm beanie, and a sweatshirt because it was becoming cold. I looked in the mirror and did a double take. Percy and I were 21 years old. I never thought we would make it this far. Just then I noticed that most of my house designs were gone. They were all the ones that I made for myself, my dream house. I would have never told Percy this, but when I made it, I imagined it being here, right next to the beach in camp, near the Forum and College and the Greek Camp, and I imagined Percy and us living in it, together imagined us starting a family in this home. I searched for the papers, but couldn't find them. The harpies probably ate them, and I cursed the fat pigeon ladies, and then jogged over to the campfire.

When I got there Percy was waiting for me, then jogged up to me, kissed me, and took my hand. He had something in his other hand, but I couldn't see it, and I was so bummed about losing my blueprints that I didn't wonder what it was. _Probably just some food or Riptide _I thought to myself. When I walked in, everyone was sitting in their seats, and the fire was bigger than I'd ever seen it. I wondered what was getting everyone so excited. Just then I noticed that a lot of my friends were here. Piper, Leo, Jason, Hazel, Frank, Nico, Coach Hedge, Millie, and Grover, who was now the Lord of the Wild and was very busy, was here, and Thalia and all the Hunters were here. They were all sitting up front, along with Chiron, and-wait, my dad, stepmom and stepbrothers were also here. And sitting next to him was Athena! Next to Athena was Poseidon, and nest to Poseidon was Percy's mom and Tyson. There was also even Zeus, Hera, Hermes, and all the other gods, even Hades. The Amazons and Reyna were here as well, all sitting around the campfire, surrounding Percy and I. I was suddenly scared and on edge. What if we had another quest that we would definitely not come back from? What if they were going to send Percy away again and erase his entire memory this time? I looked at Percy worriedly and clenched his hand. His eyes sparkled more than I had ever seen them sparkle. I was very confused, and then he started laughing.

"We're matching again." I looked at him. He was wearing the same color sweater. I smiled, and started to laugh as well.

"Annabeth, remember when I first met you. To be honest I thought you were a princess, until you said I drooled in my sleep, then left. After that, I knew I had met someone much better. Wise Girl, we have been through anything and everything, we have cried many tears and lost many friends. But we have always been together, and I wouldn't want it any other way." He was smiling that mischievous smile again. Just then, I connected the dots. "Annabeth Chase, I have never met anyone as beautiful, courageous, smart, funny, and selfless as you. Annabeth Chase, I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you." He knelt on one knee, and looked into my eyes. The world stopped, and it was just us, together, forever.

"Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?" One word stopped time, and bonded us in a way we could have never imagined.

"Yes." I jumped into his arms and tackled him to the ground; we stared into each other's eyes, and kissed.

The campfire burned bright red and climbed to new heights. Everyone screamed with excitement, and pounded their weapons against shields. Just then, Zeus and the other gods, especially Athena and Poseidon "coughed" rather loudly, and told us that kissing in front of the gods was disrespectful (except for Aphrodite, who was screeching with delight). We just kept on kissing, happier than we had ever been in our lives. After about five minutes, I broke away, and we both stood up.

I whispered, "I love you," in his ear. He was grinning ear to ear.

"So, why did you bring all the money?" I asked. He laughed, kissed me again, and said,

"You'll find out tomorrow, Wise Girl."

We both laughed, and our friends ran over, and gave us huge bear hugs and congratulated us. Thalia was actually crying. I guess I was too. Athena and Poseidon walked over after our friends and Chiron released us.

"I guess we'll have to get along now, Olive Head."

"For our children, yes, Water Weight."

Percy and I both laughed. We would have to use those sometime. Surprisingly, my mother did the last possible thing I expected...she hugged me.

"I'm proud of you, Annabeth" she whispered, and she let a single tear glide down her cheek.

On the other side of me, Sea weed Brain was practically being squished to death by bear hug from Poseidon. Then, Poseidon gave me a hug, and Athena shook Percy's hand, then Poseidon's.

"You make sure that son of yours takes good care of my daughter."

"Likewise." Then they both smiled and walked away to talk to Chiron and mingle with the other gods.

"C'mon my lovely bride-to-be," he chuckled, and then lifted me up wedding style once more. "Let's go on a picnic."

He kissed me, set me down, and then whistled. Blackjack came flying down, horse crying.

"Boss that was beautiful. The Camp Beach right?" Percy nodded, lifted me onto the horse, got on himself, then we flew away to the ocean. Poseidon made it extra warm and calm for us, and we sat down on the picnic blanket, covered in blankets, kissing and laughing and looking up at the stars. We fell asleep smiling, in each other's arms.


End file.
